


Death of a Bachelor

by Hale13



Series: Whump Bingo 2020 [3]
Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Blood and Injury, F/M, Human Disaster Peter Parker, Hurt Peter Parker, Peter Parker Whump, Peter Parker is a Mess, Precious Peter Parker, Whump, Whump Bingo, Whumptober
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:49:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26713996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hale13/pseuds/Hale13
Summary: Contrary to popular belief, Peter doesn’t web up every single ‘criminal’ he finds.  He gets what its like to have nothing and all he wants to do is help.Sometimes that backfires.(For Space B3 on my Bingo card - Touching clothing and hand comes away bloody)
Relationships: Michelle Jones/Peter Parker
Series: Whump Bingo 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1943986
Comments: 5
Kudos: 83





	Death of a Bachelor

**Author's Note:**

> This one just did not want to be written guys. I have edited it as much as I feel like editing it and it still feels a little disjointed. Sorry about that!
> 
> Also all of these oneshots want to be named after Panic! songs for some reason.
> 
> Anyway, here is space B3!

Peter let out a whoop of excitement as he pulled quickly out of the dive at the last possible moment, his webbing hitting its mark on the next building perfectly to pull him back up safely. The week had been pretty heavy crime-wise and Peter was enjoying the few uninterrupted moments he had to just web-sling around the skyscrapers of Manhattan on his way back home from dropping off some weird alien-tech to Mr. Stark at the tower.

Queens was great and it was home but, damn, they didn’t have buildings and perches quite like this in his borough.

“You got any action for me Karen?” Peter asked and he did a corkscrew into a double back flip to the delight of a group of kids cheering below. His curfew was approaching fast but he probably had time for one more minor crime on the way home.

“Police and proximity scanners are only picking up a domestic dispute that is already been diffused by the NYPD and a couple medical emergencies that paramedics have been dispatched to handle.” His AI’s cool voice answered in response, the report popping up the the right side of his HUD. Peter scanned it quickly before nodding.

“Cool, well keep scanning and set a route for the optimal way home please.”

“Route set. Would you like me to highlight the most efficient target areas for your webs?” Karen asked helpfully, a red line winding its way across his HUD point him toward the apartment he shared with May.

“That would be awesome! Can you also text May and let her know my ETA pending any Spidey business.”

“Message sent.”

Peter smiled as he aimed his next web, twisting sharply around the corner of a building before parkour-ing across the tops of several others with large bounces thanks to his enhanced strength, humming along to the song playing from his patrol playlist on Spotify. He was about five minutes from home when an alert pinged on the corner of his HUD and the highlighted road home re-routed. “Peter, a 911 call has reported a mugging a few blocks from here.”

“Thanks K. Activate reconnaissance mode.”

“Reconnaissance mode activated.”

Peter grasped the side of the building leading into the alley where the mugging was reported, using his wall-crawling abilities to creep around the corner completely silently. He stuck to the shadows as he approached the scene, taking stock of the situation to best plan his attack.

A woman was sobbing silently, gripping her purse and grocery bags tightly in one hand while using the other to keep a curious toddler behind her and as sheltered as possible. A woman stood in front of her shakily brandishing a knife, her clothes torn and ratty and a desperate look on her face. “Just give me the groceries an-and nothing has to happen,” she said, stepping forward and gesturing at the bag with the end of the blade causing the young mother to flinch.

Peter instantly felt his heart drop. All the New York Boroughs had a high homeless population and Peter had diffused many situations like this since he had become Spider-Man. The first time he had responded and the police had arrested the guilty party he had felt no pleasure like he was used to feeling when he stopped robberies and muggings. After that he had done a ton of research and found F.E.A.S.T. and started not reporting the homeless population unless they were particularly violent. He, instead, would pass them a address card he kept stored in the pocket of his suit with the location of all the F.E.A.S.T. shelters in Queens.

After a particularly difficult night where the shelters had to turn away some people due to lack of resources and he had returned home and come a little un-glued to Aunt May, they had both started volunteering on the weekends whenever their schedule allowed. Once Mr. Stark figured out why he was missing some weekend work shop sessions, the man had set up a large monthly donation to the shelters.

All of this to say, if Peter could diffuse this situation, he could make sure the people in need could get a hot meal and a place to sleep and hopefully resources to help her get permanent housing and state assistance to get on her feet if necessary.

“Hey!” He said, dropping silently into the alley, startling both parties of the conflict. “Let’s just drop the knife and talk about this alright?”

The homeless woman rotated quickly, fresh tears welling up in her eyes to point the knife at him. The young mother took full advantage and scooped her son into her arms, running out of the opposite end of the alley and Peter let out a tiny sigh of relief. This would be much easier now.

Peter kept his arms raised in front of him as he took a couple short steps closer causing the woman to flinch and skitter away from him until she backed into a trash can, knocking it over and making her press her back into the brick wall of the alley. “It’s okay,” Peter soothed, abruptly stopping his progression forward.

“I just need to feed my family,” she whispered, arms shaking.

“I know,” Peter told her. “Let me help you.”

“By arresting me?” She accused loudly. “Leaving me webbed to a wall somewhere for the police to pick up? How will that help me?”

“I wouldn’t,” Peter promised her, weighing his chances before moving a little closer. When he faced no further retaliation, he took a few more cautious steps. “I’m in the business of helping people, not getting them arrested.” The woman in front of him dropped her arms to her sides and let out a loud sob, wrapping her arms around her middle and Peter relaxed a little more.

Then everything kind of went to shit.

“Look, daddy! It’s Spider-Man! Hey Spider-Man!” A high-pitched, excited voice shouted from the mouth of the alley and Peter turned, horrified, to see a bright-eyed little girl shaking her dad’s arm and pointing at him excitedly. The father in question’s face drained of blood as he took in the scene ten feet away from him before scooping up his child and running away. Peter’s Spidey Sense warned him to move and he twitched to the right, the knife clattering to the ground in front of him. He turned to see the woman he was trying to help booking it out of the other end of the alley.

“So much for that,” he muttered, putting his hands on his hips and tipping his head back to sigh before firing a web to the top of the building above him. As he gripped the web propel himself up he noticed that his left glove was redder than normal and he dropped the web to hold his hand in front of his face.

Blood? Where…?

His eyes flickered over to the knife abandoned on the ground and he realized that the tip and edges were dripping gore. Cautiously, and with a growing feeling of trepidation, he probed his side with his clean hand and hissed at the stinging sensation, bringing his arm up too view the blood staining his previously clean fingers before gulping and peering down.

There was a gash cutting into the meat of his side right above his left hip. How did this happen without him feeling it?

“Karen?” He said shakily, this was far from his first injury but it had definitely taken him by surprise and he could feel the adrenaline pumping. He clamped his hand tight over the injury to prevent it from bleeding too quickly and making a conscious effort to take deep, even breaths and slow his heart rate. Even with what he would consider minor injuries, he was just as prone to shock as a non-enhanced human.

“You seem to be in distress, Peter, shall I call Mr. Stark?” His AI asked, throwing his vitals up onto his HUD along with Mr. Stark’s contact information.

Peter weighed his options. On one hand, Mr. Stark had access to a full MedBay and trained medical staff that could fix him up quickly. On the other, then Mr Stark would tell May and he would definitely be under house arrest until they could take out the stitches in a few days. He also couldn’t go home, May would be getting back from work in less than an hour and no one could smell a rat quite like May Parker.

“Peter?” Karen prompted.

Decisions, decisions.

“Karen, plot a course to MJ’s please.”

“Peter I’m required by the Baby Monitor Protocol to report any untreated injuries to Mr. Stark and your aunt.”

“Snitches get stitches Karen.” Peter quipped, shooting some web over his cut to temporarily stop the bleeding until he could get to MJ’s. He then jumped onto the fire escape and scuttled to the top of the building.

“Peter,” Karen said severely, sounding vaguely disappointed in him but lighting up the route for him anyway, helpfully adding visual targets for his webs that allowed him to baby his tender left side.

“I’m going to get help, K, I promise,” He assured his AI, wincing as one of his swings pulled his muscles a little too tight. “MJ has a first aid kit and, if she isn’t home, I promise I’ll call Mr. Stark. Deal?” He pleaded, stopping to perch on the building next to MJ’s.

“Fine,” Karen conceded, going silent.

Checking that the coast was clear, Peter started inching down the wall of the apartment building until he was across from the fire escape outside his friend’s window before lithely jumping across and landing nearly silently on the rusted metal. He knelt down and tapped on her window, being careful to make sure that he was visible without peaking in. MJ was a big fan of her privacy and Peter wanted to respect that. Even more so since he was showing up un-announced.

The frame screeched as MJ pulled the window open, leaning forward on her elbows to observe him with a bored look on her face, her eyes quickly tracking down his torso and lingering over the slightly bloody webs on his side.

“‘Sup loser,” MJ greeted, stepping back and gesturing him inside.

“Hey MJ,” Peter said, clambering through the frame and standing a little awkwardly just inside the threshold. MJ had gotten closer to both Ned and himself over the last few months, even more so once she confronted him about his secret identity, but there was something that bubbled and fluttered in his stomach every time he saw her now. He had never really felt like this around anyone, not even Liz, and he wasn’t sure what to do about it and it wasn’t like MJ was easy to read. Hence his immediate blundering idiocy in her presence lately.

“Not that this isn’t fun,” she said after a moment of uncomfortable silence on Peter’s part, “but I can guess why you’re here.”

“What?” Peter asked eloquently, pulling himself forcefully from his thoughts. “Oh,” he said, clamping a hand to his aching side, “yeah, Karen tattles if I don’t get help if I get injured.” He told her, pulling his mask off and ruffling his curls. “Can you give me a hand? It doesn’t need stitches or anything.”

“Ned busy?” MJ asked him as she knelt down to pull a low trunk out from under her bed, stretching a towel out across her carpet and gesturing him to sit down.

Peter flopped onto the towel, leaning carefully back against the side of her desk to keep his left side from touching it. “Uh, I don’t know, actually.” MJ just raised an eyebrow and gestured for him to continue as she pulled out a first aid kit and starting sorting through supplies to make a pile beside him. “I didn’t call him. I just… came here?” His voice cracked a little and he cleared his throat, his face heating up.

MJ glanced up at him, eyes locking with him before swiftly breaking eye contact to pull on a pair of gloves. “You need to take that off.” She told him softly, nodding to his suit.

“Oh, uh, okay. Sure.” He tapped the spider icon on his chest and the suit loosened around him. He shift around until he could get both arms out of the sleeves and then paused for a second before nervously dragging it down his chest to pool just below his waist, exposing the full extent of the cut.

MJ’s eyes raked down his chest and Peter squirmed a little, uncomfortable with the attention, before she brought her focus to his side. “My parents aren’t home but the walls are pretty thin. Do you need something to bite on or whatever?” Peter shook his head no and MJ nodded, scooting closer and grabbing his left arm, draping it over her shoulder.

“What are you doing?” Peter asked, twitching his arm up in preparation to remove it.

“I need to get to your side,” MJ explained as she popped up an iodine swab, “this seemed like the easiest way to get you arm out of the way.” She looked up at him from under her bangs, a dusting of red over her cheeks, suddenly looking uncertain. “Is this okay?”

“Yeah,” Peter breathed out, allowing his head to thunk back against the wood behind him. He let out a hiss and squeezed his eyes shut as the iodine came in contact with his tender side.

“Sorry,” MJ muttered softly, gentling her movements, but not being any less thorough in cleaning him up.

“‘S okay,” Peter told her, both of them falling silent as she opened another swab and gave his side a second cleaning before bandaging it up neatly with a telfa pad and some bandage tape. “Thanks,” Peter told her as she smoothed on the last piece and removed her soiled gloves, adding them to the trash can with the rest of the used supplies.

“Why did you come here, Pete?” MJ asked him suddenly, startling him from admiring her handy work.

“What do you mean?”

“You have access to Tony Stark’s personal medical team at any time. And May is an ER nurse. Ned is your best friend. Why did you come to me?”

Peter gulped and considered for a moment. He thought about the fluttering in his stomach when he saw MJ, the way her bangs stuck up, wild, when she twisted them around her fingers when she was particularly engrossed in a book. The fire she showed in competition that otherwise did not see the light of day. The first time he made her laugh with a witty come back to Flash. The careful way she listened to the problems people would bring her, the well thought out and compassionate answers she could give. The way her long fingers wrapped around her pencils as she sketched.

“Because I trust you.” He told her bluntly. “And I wanted to see you. I… really like being around you MJ.”

“I’m… not good at letting myself get close to people,” MJ offered, biting her lower lip and searching his face. Peter kept quiet and still, giving her the chance to gather herself. “But I really like being around you, too, Peter.”

“Yeah?” Peter asked, he could feel a smile growing on his face.

“Yes.” MJ said more confidently. She studied him a little closer. “We have that paper due to Ms. Warren next week. Would you maybe want to go get some coffee tomorrow and work on it? Just us?”

“I would love that.” Peter told her brightly. “I can pick you up at one?”

MJ rolled her eyes at him, easily slipping back into their banter. “I’m perfectly capable of walking to a coffee shop by myself nerd.”

“Who said anything about walking?” Peter asked her, miming shooting a web as he pulled his suit back up and tapped the spider to tighten it back around him and pulling his mask on to sit on his head like a multi-million dollar beanie.

MJ laughed a little nervously. “I’m not normally a thrill-seeker but, sure, why not? I’ll meet you on the roof at one.”

Peter pulled down the mask and perched on her window sill, firing a web to the building across from him. “The roof at one,” he confirmed. “And MJ?” He said, looking over his shoulder, smiling under the mask. “Thanks for the help.”

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t have a tumblr but join me over on Twitter @Hale1310 - I just set it up and I’m looking for some prompts to combine with these bingo prompts and for separate stories!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed!


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